Violence and the threats—including a Christmas Day bombing at a Catholic church that killed 44, and a January warning that all Christians should leave northern Nigeria—are taking a toll.- Worldmag.com

The terrorist group has vowed to attack police, military, and Christian institutions. It has promised to kidnap Westerners—and has abducted a Brit, an Italian, and a German worker.

Boko Haram wants to impose Sharia law across Nigeria and oust the current president, a Christian named Goodluck Jonathan. In Hausa, the dominant language of west and north Africa, Boko Haram means “Western Education is Sinful.” Its official name, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, is Arabic for “Group Committed to Propagating the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad.”

If it’s possible to bring a city of 9 million to a standstill, Boko Haram has done it in Kano. When bombs began exploding on Jan. 20, “whole buildings were shaking,” said Alkali, “and there was so much vibration that some people collapsed from it.”

Most disturbing: Since Sharia law went into effect in northern Nigeria, over 13,000 mostly Christian Nigerians have been killed in religious-related violence, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Two thousand of those deaths, according to Open Doors, took place in 2011.